Political prisoner Lula a front-runner in Brazilian presidential race

According to the poll conducted by the Brazilian agency Datafolha, the Brazilian ex-president Lula da Silva is heading the rating of presidential candidates, a Rossa Primavera News Agency correspondent reports on June 11.

According to the poll, if the elections were held in June, 30 per cent of the respondents would vote for the ex-president Lula who is now serving a 12-year sentence. And that would secure the pass to the second round of the elections. His closest rival, Jair Bolsonaro has secured the support of only 13 per cent of those surveyed. Third in the race comes the leader of ecological movement Marina Silva who had run for president before. She has the support of 10 per cent of the respondents.

Notably, these data are published by an agency that does not sympathize with the Workers’ Party which is to nominate Lula da Silva as a presidential candidate. Two weeks ago a similar poll was conducted by the Vox Populi agency (People’s Voice) and, according to its results, Lula is in the lead, having a 39 per cent rating. This shows that the ex-president is indeed a front-runner in the presidential race, in spite of being kept in detention in a prison in the town of Curitiba.

The Workers’ Party has recently released a campaign music video which is very popular in Brazilian social networks. The video is titled “Brazil Happy Again”, it features such lyrics: “You can kill one, two or three roses but you can never stop the coming of spring”.

On August 15, the Workers’ Party is to nominate officially Lula da Silva for the presidential race, submitting the corresponding request to the Supreme Electoral Court of Brazil. Earlier, there were precedents when convicted candidates were given the opportunity to run for a public position. That is why the Workers’ Party does not rule out the possibility that its petition might be approved.

The presidential elections in Brazil are to be held on October 7, 2018. The persons directly connected to the “parliamentarian coup” which resulted in the overthrow of Dilma Rousseff refused to participate in these elections. In particular, the current president Michel Temer has decided not to participate. In a context of the increasing popularity of Lula Brazil is stepping into the period of an acute political competition when the outcome of the elections is absolutely unpredictable.